I've Worked With Better, But Not Many
May 16, 2024 7:07 AM Subscribe
How did Ghostbusters II create the talking Vigo the Carpathian painting? Glen Eytchison was deep in the planning stages of his next theatrical production when he got a phone call from Industrial Light & Magic. It was early 1989, and employees at George Lucas’s famed visual effects house needed to create a painting of a 16th-century Carpathian warlord that could come to life for director Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbusters sequel. They had to do it fast: The movie was due to come out in June. Could Eytchison help them?
Includes a scrapped ending concept, the original undubbed Vigo actor's performance, and the location of the real original Vigo painting used in the film today.
Includes a scrapped ending concept, the original undubbed Vigo actor's performance, and the location of the real original Vigo painting used in the film today.
To this day I cannot see or hear the name without hearing Peter McNicol say "He is Vigo! You are like the buzzing of flies to him!"
You can imagine how difficult this made LOTR fandom.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:49 AM on May 16 [23 favorites]
You can imagine how difficult this made LOTR fandom.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:49 AM on May 16 [23 favorites]
Obligatory: King Charles III has some thoughts.
posted by Optamystic at 8:06 AM on May 16 [5 favorites]
posted by Optamystic at 8:06 AM on May 16 [5 favorites]
Nice! Thank you for posting, Servo5678.
I love reading about the use of paintings in film, and particularly the technical aspects. Often they are, for production reasons, created with only their on-screen use in mind, never mind any of the structural rules that are typically employed to aid longevity (ex. for oil paintings, using a hard support instead of a canvas, or ensuring that later layers of paintings have a higher oil content to help with climate adjustment, prevent cracking out of outer laters, etc.).
Books published as companions to films sometimes have this kind of biz, and you can read in the companion book to The Cabin in the Woods about that process, though it's nothing like as cool & complex as Ghostbusters II's. The book Dark Galleries might also interest some here, covering paintings in 1940s and 1950s noirs, melodramas, and ghost films. The paintings in Corman's Poe films have also been of interest to many (e.g.).
posted by cupcakeninja at 8:18 AM on May 16 [7 favorites]
I love reading about the use of paintings in film, and particularly the technical aspects. Often they are, for production reasons, created with only their on-screen use in mind, never mind any of the structural rules that are typically employed to aid longevity (ex. for oil paintings, using a hard support instead of a canvas, or ensuring that later layers of paintings have a higher oil content to help with climate adjustment, prevent cracking out of outer laters, etc.).
Books published as companions to films sometimes have this kind of biz, and you can read in the companion book to The Cabin in the Woods about that process, though it's nothing like as cool & complex as Ghostbusters II's. The book Dark Galleries might also interest some here, covering paintings in 1940s and 1950s noirs, melodramas, and ghost films. The paintings in Corman's Poe films have also been of interest to many (e.g.).
posted by cupcakeninja at 8:18 AM on May 16 [7 favorites]
Obligatory: King Charles III has some thoughts.
"I, Charles of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the Scourge of Bournemouth, the Sorrow of Chipping Norton, command you!"
posted by tclark at 9:09 AM on May 16 [7 favorites]
"I, Charles of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the Scourge of Bournemouth, the Sorrow of Chipping Norton, command you!"
posted by tclark at 9:09 AM on May 16 [7 favorites]
I thought David Cameron was the Sorrow of Chipping Norton?
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 9:11 AM on May 16 [4 favorites]
posted by 43rdAnd9th at 9:11 AM on May 16 [4 favorites]
Derail, but I freaking LOVE that KCIII portrait. Red on red. Because why not!
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:30 AM on May 16 [2 favorites]
posted by St. Peepsburg at 9:30 AM on May 16 [2 favorites]
This was probably my favorite movie as a kid and I would absolutely hang a Vigo the Carpathian painting in my home just in honor of how TERRIFYING it was to an 8 yr old.
Thanks for the post! Fascinating to read how the painting was made.
posted by sonika at 12:58 PM on May 17
Thanks for the post! Fascinating to read how the painting was made.
posted by sonika at 12:58 PM on May 17
I read the previously about this, which is how I learned the ridiculous live-people-posing-as-famous painting thing in Arrested Development is juuuust barely satire, and not one of their weird inventions. California is a strange place.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:21 PM on May 17
posted by Jon Mitchell at 9:21 PM on May 17
« Older “It’s really a strange town.” | "Every time you kiss me, feels like a..." WHAT? Newer »
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 7:35 AM on May 16 [4 favorites]